Juvenile justice. (Bulletin Reports).

The National Criminal Justice Reference Service presents Restorative Justice Conferences as an Early Response to Young Offenders (NCJ 187769). This report describes restorative justice conferencing, a promising form of early intervention for very young offenders that brings together offending youths with their victims, and supporters of both, with a trained facilitator. Youths who become involved in the juvenile justice system at an early age are significantly more likely to continue offending than their older counterparts. Because very young offenders are at greater risk to reoffend and progress to serious delinquency, effective early intervention is crucial. Early offenders pose special challenges, but restorative justice conferencing offers unique benefits, as shown by the Indianapolis Restorative Justice Conferencing Experiment. As described in this Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Bulletin, such conferencing holds youths accountable for their actions and allows them to repair the har m that they have caused while involving families and victims in the process. For a copy of this report, call the National Criminal Justice Reference Service at 800-851-3420 or access its Web site at http://ww.ncjrs.org.

Bulletin Reports is an edited collection of criminal justice studies, reports, and project findings. Send your material for consideration to: FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, Room 209, Madison Building, FBI Academy, Quantico, VA 22135. (NOTE: The material in this section is intended to be strictly an information source and should not be considered an endorsement by the FBI for any product or service.)